Female Film Critics 24/375
It is a maxim of good writing to show rather tell. That rule applies especially to telling stories. But what about a movie based on the art of story-telling? A movie is all about showing — after all, it’s called “show” business. Breaking this rule causes Three Thousand Years of Longing to be sadly mediocre.
Read more
George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing delves into the thought-provoking power of fantasy and storytelling. Adapted from The Djinn and the Nightingale’s Eye, it’s scripted as a cautionary tale by director George Miller and his daughter, Augusta Gore, with exquisite vignettes, exploring themes of fate, loneliness and the universal desire for connection. With superb comedic timing, Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba play off each other perfectly.
Read more
Based on a short story, Three Thousand Years of Longing is visually stunning, and the original score by Junkie XL smooths the rocky storyline. It grants us some warmth and deep thoughts on seduction with brains not brawn, but if I had one of the three wishes in play, I’d ask for my time back.
Read more
If you’ve ever been on an African safari or dreamed about going on one, the thriller Beast should hit home.
A recent widower, Dr. Nate Samuels (Idris Elba), is taking his two teenage daughters – sullen Meredith (Iyana Halley) and her younger sister Norah (Leah Jeffries) – on a healing journey to the South African savannah where their late mother, a photographer, spent her childhood. Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur works with cinematographer Philippe Rousselot and the digital team to create savage terror as the canny, vengeful beast repeatedly stalks them.
Idris Elba is a desperate father protecting his children from a killer lion in Beast, the latest survival thriller from Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur. Killer animal movies are nothing new and with a quick glance at the film’s synopsis, audiences may wonder why someone who possesses Elba’s acting talent would appear in a movie that screams direct-to-VOD schlock. However, it is precisely his casting that signals there is something more to this story than meets the eye.
Read more
Director Jeff Fowler, returning from the original Sonic, frames the brawls between Sonic and Knuckles as a fun twist on those who-would-beat-whom bouts, and the action is easy to follow, even with the fighters’ neon streaks of blue and red. It’s also enjoyable, such as when Sonic dodges beams from Robotnik’s drones like a game of laser tag during a snowboarding chase down a mountainside. Fowler has less success with the wedding humor, but that plot eventually dovetails with the furballs while knowingly nodding at action sequences from other films.
Read more
The action/adventure/comedy The Suicide Squad is perhaps a quasi-sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad, as writer/director James Gunn ventures into the DC Extended Universe, totally re-envisioning the super-villain franchise. Problem is: with little exposition and no character development, there’s no emotional resonance, making it more of a grotesque, R-rated comic-book-turned-video game than a movie.
Read more
Writer/director Ricky Staub looked outside his office window in North Philadelphia and was stunned to see a horse and buggy going down the street – like a remnant of another century. On further investigation, he realized his office was only a mile away from the Fletcher Street stables, a non-profit organization that’s been dedicated to inner-city horsemanship for 100 years. That prompted him to write this fictionalized, coming-of-age family drama, revolving around this riding culture.
Read more
There’s a cavalcade of high-tech gadgets, black-outfitted goons, armed drones, flashy hot rods, enormous explosions and sardonic one-liners, plus multiple family dramas, a High Altitude, Low Open parachute jump and not one but two uncredited A-lister cameos.
Read more“This woman does not belong in a RICO indictment. She belongs on a box of Wheaties.” Attorney Charlie Jaffey (Idris
Read more